6/25/2020 Details of 1999 (Gyo-Tsu) 35 | Judgments of the Supreme Court cannot do. The majority opinion is of the view that the amended Law on Public Election also allows political parties and other political organisations to conduct an election campaign based upon the idea that the election system is based primarily upon policies and political parties and therefore can be justified. According to the majority view, it is inevitable that there are differences in the election campaigns of candidates who belong to candidates-presenting parties and of those who do not, but the differences as provided by the Law are of the level which inevitably emerges as a result of allowing election campaigns to candidate-presenting political parties and cannot be regarded as an excess of the scope of discretion by the Diet and unconstitutional. Concerning the fact that political broadcasts are only allowed to candidate-presenting parties, the majority opinion also maintains that solely on the basis of this difference, it cannot be concluded that the differences between the candidates as provided by the provisions on the election campaign have reached a level at which the difference has no rationale whatsoever. However, although it may be desirable to make the election system based primarily on policies, whether it should be based primarily on political parties is a matter which requires separate consideration. The actions of candidate-presenting parties, in the process of an election campaign, in specifically explaining their policies to the voters and in trying to influence the voters since the successful election of their candidate facilitates the realisation of their policies, are outcomes of allowing political parties to conduct election campaigns, and therefore, are not problematic. However, if candidatepresenting political parties go one step further and within a specific small constituency, present the name of a specific candidate who belongs to the party to the voters and campaign for his successful election, this means nothing other than that the political party is topping up the election campaign conducted by the candidate for the benefit of the candidate and results in giving the candidates who belong to a political party a more effective election campaign in volume and quality in comparison to the candidates who do not belong to a political party. Therefore, depending on the level of differences and the substance, this may generate the possibility of breaching the principle of equality of the right to be elected as required by the Constitution. 3. The substance of the difference in the election campaign and its level If one compares the manners of election campaigns allowed to candidates and the candidate-presenting political parties in order to examine the differences between the candidates who belong to a candidate-presenting political party in a small constituency and those who do not, the outcome is as follows (in the following, the Law on Public Election is referred to as the 'Law', the Enforcement Order of the said Law as the 'Order', and the Enforcement Rules as the 'Rules'). 1) The opening of the campaign office (1) Candidates In principle, it is not allowed to open more than one office (Law Art.131, para.1, subpara.1). (2) Candidate-presenting political parties In each constituency in which a present candidate stands, in principle, it is not allowed to open more than one office (Law Art.131, para.1, subpara.1). They are able to handle matters concerning the election campaign in the campaign office of the political party which submitted the list of candidates. 2) The use of cars, boats, and loud speakers (1) Candidates Concerning cars, boats, and loud speakers which which are primarily for use in the election campaign, candidates are allowed only one car or boat and a set of loud speakers in principle (Law Art.141, para.1). There is a limitation on the number of people who can be in the car or boat (Law Art.141-2, para.1). There are limitations on the kinds and structure of the cars (Law Art.141, para.7, Order Art.109-3). https://www.courts.go.jp/app/hanrei_en/detail?id=458 19/23